After this keep your foot on the brake and start the car, you should feel the brake pedal being pulled in by the brake booster, sign that booster is working but not indication if it's leaking vacuum or not

But not too hard a pressure. I have burst two brake lines by doing this!

Welcome Ruan With regards to the first part of your question, it seems you already have better excuses than I do. I bought mine when I was still a bachelor. With regard to the correlation between age and reliability: Firstly, on an old car there will be niggles. Little things that need to be fiddled...

Just remember to bleed them in the correct order. Will need to check the manual on this, so I will confirm later. But I seem to recall the order is: 1: load sensor switch (above back diff). 2: left back. 3: right back. 4: left front. 5: right front. As I said, that is the order I remember, but my m...